"My ass I've fucked myself out of any NCO badges." Ran's impudence immediately took a nose dive when he noticed the Staff Sergeant stripes on the waifish nymph in front of him. "Aw fuck. Fucking seriously? What, did they start trading in ranks for blowjobs?"
Somewhere, Ran's galactic soul mate was digging an increasingly deeper hole.
"Hah, hah. Listen to me you overgrown shit, I was a soldier killing fully-grown men before I was old enough to buy my own booze. I placed top of my class in medic training after finishing marine basic, and I've lost limbs on almost every world we fought and died on during the war with the squids. If by 'blowjob', you actually mean 'killed a man with a bonesaw', then yeah, I've sucked a lot of dicks." Elina said, the little glowing irises in her cybernetics narrowing. Reaching for her medical holster, she pulled out a hypolathe and spun it idly in her fingers to emphasize the point.
Ran subconsciously tried to loosen his collar, then produced and lit another cigarette to help him deal with these incredibly confusing feelings of rage and arousal he was experiencing. "Damn girl, you have no idea how hot you are when all pissed off and on a hormonal tirade." Ran pointed to his head and grabbed himself in a suggestive manner. "I'm going to save this entire conversation for later."
The pistol-like medical tool produced a shimmering sliver of crystalline bonesaw, extending out several inches like a very real and dangerous visual metaphor for Ran's confused erection. "Well Corporal, by all rights you can do that. You're also going to be saving the part where I administer a non-inert version of the vaccine and you spend the next few hours shitting your pants."
"Girl, I'd happily break the legs of every fucking medic in here if it meant you'd have no choice, ethically or structurally, to take my pants off and clean my dookie. I never knew you'd be into that kind of shit - " Ran suppressed a giggle there " - but by all means I'm into it if it gets me closer to that center of yours. Fuck, all they'd see is a farting and shitting maelstrom of leg breaking man-meat sending them to the intensive care ward."
"...eww." Elina reply was short, as her boiling temper was suppressed by sheer disgust.
Slip-Ring piped up from where It still stood amid the broken toys and their shattered container, "Staff Sergeant, do you require physical violence to restrain the Corporal?"
A pair of blue eyes peeked over one of the shipping containers and looked down at the three marines. "Shhh, it's just some grownup talk 'spacer. It's best to let nature take it's course with organics sometimes," she helpfully suggested to him. Initially, the black haired woman was originally going to ask for a cigarette or something, but this was a much better pick-me-up.
"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME." Ran screamed past Elina's face, down at Slip-Ring below. Without thinking very much, the Mid-Corporal vaulted off of the edge next to Elina to land right in front of Slip-Ring. Unfortunately, he had taken his rather heavy cargo bag with him - and shattered his ankles.
Impossibly, the Marine stood up on his ruined ankles and was able to lightly grind his forehead into Slip-Ring's, attempting to push it back despite the blinding pain coming from his shattered ankles. "WHO GAVE YOU THE RANK TO TALK SHIT TO ME, PRIVATE. I SWEAR TO FUCK I WI-"
Slip-Ring was rather impassive, face in that mocking happy-amusement expression, and It managed to stand It's ground if only in part due to its non-organic musculature and the Corporal's horribly wrecked ankles, though its beret was knocked off to expose its rainbow-colored mess of a matted down mohawk, "I am simply offering the Staff Sergeant assistant, Corporal. I meant no offense."
Ran's expression immediately showed a rage as deep as a cauldron of boiling steel, and from it would be forged the sword of his vengeance upon the being in front of him, as he headbutted Slip-Ring so hard he knocked himself unconscious.
On Slip-Ring's part, It was thankful it didn't have active pain sensors. Its head snapped back far too fluidly for a normal human taking a blow before a hand shot up to feel for (admittedly less likely) exterior damages, "Staff Sergeant, the Corporal is subdued."
Rather unannounced and standing next to the yet-to-be-named Fredriika, Master Chief Fian Vel Steyr watched the whole spectacle including Mid-Corporal Ran hobbling across the deck towards the Freespacer with mild amusement, it wasn't the first time he witnessed the tenacity of the ex-Chief refusing to acknowledge a mobility injury, at least this time nobody has gotten shot... Yet at least. He rubbed the small stubble that had grown under his chin in the weeks on board. "And here I was hoping this would be an easy tour before retirement." The Nepleslian said to himself.
"Huh? You? Retire?" the woman next to Fian whispered in surprise, still keeping an eye on the others below. "I always thought a good marine just faded away," she smiled, turning bright, icy blue eyes to him. "Hey, you got some popcorn or something? This is really good," still speaking to him in hushed tones. The way she said it all made it sound like they were in a movie theater or even watching a play. One where everything the people on stage did was for their entertainment.
"They don't fade away as much as they fall with a dull thud." Fian swallowed hard, even with CC and ST technology, he still believed in his own moral and spiritual compass that the price of death is never that trivial, he doesn't intend to find out firsthand. That he knew Ran had at least one CC revive added to the irony. "I wouldn't call myself good, but getting a one way ticket to Francia is about as good as fading away that a Marine can get."
"Whelp." Elina's eyes very swiftly noticed the intense agony on Ran's face and blush patterns caused by his sudden blowout, and very quickly figured out he did something very dumb and hurt himself. While normally her response would be to actually treat him, he was unusually disgusting. She unclasped her harness and allowed herself to drop, gripping the side of the container with her fingertips to slow her fall to something comfortable to land at and allowing the heels of her feet to pat down on Ran's shoulders. She made the hasty landing more in a hurry to make sure that no permanent damage would result from the self-inflicted injury, so that he gave out a pained wheeze from her driving the wind out of him with her landing was just gravy.
"Hey, jackass. Are you still conscious?" She crouched down, glancing at him and giving his head a few nudges. She promptly retracted the bone saw from her hypolathe, slotting in doses of painkillers to jab into him. She briefly considered using any other of compounds punitively, but his behavior up to that point made it utterly clear: no punishment would be bad enough to get him to stop his shit.
Finally, she glanced back up at Slip-Ring, looking it over. "Are you alright?"
Slip-Ring gave a modest shrug, "This unit has experienced no damage. My pain sensors are not currently active. I would be more concerned for the Corporal and yourself. Do you require assistance moving the Corporal, Staff Sergeant?"
Though it raised a single hand, pointing with one finger off to the side as it detected the faint sounds of conversation, "Though I do believe we are being observed, Staff Sergeant." And with that turned in the general direction of the two onlookers to offer a wave and smile, "Hello!"
Stepping off of Ran and getting behind his heels, Elina gave a little nod and gestured over to a stack of pallets covered in a tarp. ""Yeah. Good initiative, 'Spacer." She answered, leaning down to grab him and turn him over onto his back. "Medbay's a while away, and I don't want this chucklefuck getting close to the drug cabinets, so let's move him over onto these so I can run diagnosis."
She only managed to give the guy next to her an "Mmm," of understanding as she watched, but soon enough, the light fell on them. 'Oh no, oh no, oh no! They're on to me! Or us? Damnit!' Fredrika thought to herself. 'Gotta take the attention off of myself somehow!' An elbow sharply nudged Fian in the ribs. "Psst! Girly boy! Stop putting on your sparkles and say something already!" she harshly whispered at him.
Fian winced to the side from the unexpected attack, he was more than ready to drop the superaware supersoldier schtick the moment he got on the transport and paid the price for it. "Ow! Why does it have to be me, you girly boy too!" Unfortunately the vast proliferation of cheap Neko pinups in the marine barracks had long since skewed his impression of the very different 'body sizes' a female can have; she was as flat as he was, and he knew he was a guy.
Krex had been silently watching the whole exchange, to the point where he had actually turned off his music to listen in. The big one, whom Krex assumed was a senior enlisted by the way he threw around his anger, had a small sergeant inserting something into the unconscious man. With the chatter silenced by the big man's injury, Krex had turned his techno metal back on. Sweet tunes filled his ears as he sat leaning against a cold cargo container, observing.
Dismissing the two not-overt observers for now, Slip-Ring turned Its attention to the still unconscious Corporal. Standing at his head, Slip-Ring was able to grab two handfuls of his tunic. Of course a proper medical team might have balked at the idea of not supporting the neck, but Slip-Ring hadn't heard anything snapping, so . . .
Without waiting for Elina, Slip-Ring began to quite ungracefully drag the Corporal to the indicated pallets, heft his upper body to rest on them, and then left the legs to the medical expert. They were supposed to be fellow Marines, working in a team after all.
"Staff Sergeant, inquiry." It didn't wait for a response, "Why are some organics so reckless? Its not like you keep many mental back-ups, as I understand. If I lose this," It motioned vaguely over its own form. "then I simply move to a new host. You have the one body."
"It's rarely just one reason. Combat stim addiction, mental trauma, abuse of androgenic steroids because anabolics are too expensive..." Elina said much more calmly, her mood stabilizing very quickly now that Ran was unconscious. Her cybernetics adjusted as she ran initial scans on him, reaching to her belt to fish out her medical kit and lay it out next to the unconscious marine.
From it she puled out the compressed scrubs and slipped them under his neck, pressing her fingertips to his sides and running them along his body to check for problem areas. Although it probably looked a bit odd, implanted sensors allowed her to very quickly diagnose his concussion and the breaks along his ankles.
"Hmm. Well, that'll do it. I want to put this fuck in a cast but he'll just use it as an excuse to take a vacation." She muttered to herself, looking up at Slip.
"Might I suggest amputation?" Slip-Ring offered without hesitation.
"...hah, hah. No. Because then he's getting military grade feet on the fleet's dime, AND time off to recover." The Staff Sergeant answered, her expression souring a bit. She glanced back at Slip, looking at it questionningly. "You know how to splint limbs Private uh...?"
"Slip-Ring Wind-Bell 89-9439-7126" It smiled, as if It's name couldn't rival the title of some elaborate novellas, "And I can access the publicly available compendium of Nepleslian field medicine as necessary, though was specifically instructed to only do so on orders to avoid getting - distracted."
"Alright, get to it Slip. I need to run a probe into his brain to make sure he's not bleeding inside, and then administer something so his eggs aren't any more scrambled." Elina said quickly, stepping back over to Ran's head and rather unceremoniously pressing the aperture of her nanolathe to his head as if she were about to kill him execution-style. A metallic wire thinner than a hair shot through, sliding inside to repair the damage his rather dramatic headbutt inflicted on his soft, delicate brain.
"Of course, Staff Sergeant." And with that Slip-Ring retrieved the appropriate materials from the Staff Sergeant's medical bag as was needed and set to work securing the ankles, aware of but not responding to the quickly escalating situation up above.
The black haired woman's jaw dropped when she heard the marine imply it. In fact, he might as well have said it. That she was flat. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME MARINE?!" a horrible monster screeched into his ear point-blank. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT BUST SIZE IS NOT THE END ALL, BE ALL FACTOR THAT DETERMINES HOW ATTRACTIVE A WOMAN IS!" she yelled at him at the top of her lungs, flecks of spittle sprinkling his otherwise flawless face. "YOU MIGHT LOOK LIKE A GIRLY BOY FROM YAMATAI WHO TRIES TO CROSS-DRESS, COMPLETE WITH SPRINKLES, BUT YOU OBVIOUSLY KNOW JACK AND SHIT WHEN IT COMES TO KNOWING WHAT MAKES WOMEN ATTRACTIVE!" Fredriika continued to rant at the Master Chief. "THERE'S ALSO HOW SLIM THEY ARE, OR HOW CURVY THEIR WAIST IS, OR HOW BIG THEIR ASS IS!" The woman in civvy clothes sighed and crossed her arms. "Besides," she continued politely, "Some men who are connoisseurs of women and have complex tastes prefer them to have smaller busts," Fredriika added.
Fian was the guy who never took statements at face value, including official orders, which may have gotten him in the soup with superiors at points in time, so in practice Federika's rant was less a lecture and more a point of discussion. "Okay so maybe not a man. But certainly a banshee." The MC's cybernetic ear domes digitally nullfied the angry woman's sonic attack, he didn't flinch at this one. He remembered, briefly, that he had a very little sister once before he signed up for the wild SMoDIN ride. That memory felt more real that the woman he just described as a noisy ghost. "Liking small busts? Sounds paedophillic." 'And not to mention incestuous.'
Krex had long since stopped listening to the various conversations. The beats bleated in his ears while he watched the two feminine boys argue over something. Adjusting his viewpoint showed another scene of, what looked like a spacer from a kid show, unceremoniously dump the loudmouth cpl onto a cargo pallet. "Seems fitting for someone like him, eh 'spacer?" Shoving himself off the wall, he walked to the spacer and helped adjust the corporal for the medic. "Don't see many of you anymore, neat." Grinning and offering his hand, "Name's Krex Valt, NSMC."
While It didn't blink, It's body language might have suggested surprise in the way It shifted rather suddenly and in It's usual too-fluid manner to face the newly approaching individual. It listened to the greeting and stared for a silent moment at the offered hand. The only other individual who performed such a gesture that It had seen was It's drill instructor in boot camp. It awkwardly matched the gesture, as it had back then, in a slightly-too-firm grip.
"Slip-Ring Wind-Bell 89, Private Third Class, NSMC. A pleasure, I'm sure, Krex Valt. Now if you'll excuse me." With that It turned back to aiding the Staff Sergeant's efforts where it could.
"Hah, great. We're making a scene." Elina muttered to herself again, peering up at Krex to speak at him a little more loudly. "If you're coming over here Private, it better either be out of concern for your fellow man or because you're volunteering to carry the big palooka once we finish up here."
"Anyway, I'm going to teach you your second most important lesson. Which is that if a superior is in some shit and he's not your old buddy, you ignore the fuck out of it." She directed to Slip-Ring, casually pointing-up to the happenings above while retracting the little filament jabbed into the ex-Chief's brain meant to keep liquid from suddenly pooling up inside and killing him once it served its purpose. Once sorted out, she loaded a cartridge of painkillers and gave him a quick jab on the side of the neck, the dose just small enough to take the edge off when he finally woke up.
"Smelling salts." The doctor waved her hand, expecting the requested item to be handed off to her. "And take my pack off the pallet so Corporal Fuckhead doesn't knock it away if he wakes up."
"Of course, Staff Sergeant." The medical pack was snatched up and quickly slung over It's shoulders as Slip-Ring moved to one side of the pallet, squatting down to grip it for when the Staff Sergeant was ready to move it.
Fian suddenly found himself being grabbed by the front of his uniform as the woman's hands lunged out. Pulled in close, he was forced to stare into her icy cold eyes. "What. Did you just call me?" she asked him, voice deathly quiet. "WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DO YOU KNOW MY CALLSIGN?!" the raven haired woman then screamed at him again. "WHO SENT Y- "She suddenly stopped, and blinked once. Then twice. "Wait. Pedophillic?" Her eyes gazed up and to the right in deep thought. "If a man likes women with small busts, it may not necessarily mean they're pedophillic, but pedophiles do like women that do have small breasts precisely because they resemble their preference."
Her eyes narrowed as her mind reached out for the threads of thought. "The Catgirl and her sister that my ex got with both had small breasts, just like me, but were even smaller and more childlike. And the girl before me had small ones too." Her eyes darted back to his. "I got it! I'll pull some strings, and frame him for being a pedophile!" she smiled, her eyes practically sparkling. "Thanks a bunch! Oh! Wait, that's really rude of me - what's your name soldier? We haven't even introduced ourselves yet." Despite the sudden niceness of her words, her hands were still curled up into fists as they grabbed Fian's uniform, holding him off the ground.
Wait, Know her callsign? What? Fian stared up at the Banshee for a moment confused before a wave of obvious realization crept over him. He was pretty much in dire straits right now with his feet off the ground and the railing right next to him, but in true NSS Alliance tradition that the brave and unparralled(sp) Ran Rui just demonstrated, a proud fraternity of panty raiding brothers that he was once part of, there were no brakes on this clown car in war or in peace. He grinned from ear to ear. "The name is Fian. So, they call you Pedo?"
Krex stared dumbly at the spacer, not quite piecing together what he had heard. "You? You're a marine? No shit." His music, coupled with his inattentiveness of someone he had yet to acknowledge, led him to not really hear the medic. The way she was speaking to him when he did pretend to care, obviously told him that she wanted him to do something. "Sorry Sgt, I have other duties to attend to. I got my leadership asking about what's going on and they needed an answer." Boldly lying to a medic he didn't know, and for all he knew, could be stationed on the other side of the planet, he slyly backed up. Krex nodded toward the spacer passed a halfhearted wave to the marine as he attempted to fade away into the container labyrinth.
"Smart choice, private." Elina replied, not even caring whether or not he was telling the truth. It got him out of the way, which was enough. "Anyway... let's see if he'll wake up," she commented, uncapping the container of smelling salts and waving them underneath Ran's nose to see if they'd do the trick, "might not even need your help if he can walk on is own."
"Huh? Oh no. My callsign was Banshee - not that I'll ever do shuttle piloting again," she remarked, still holding him off the ground by his shirt. "Anyways, my name is Fredriika. Thanks for the idea, and nice to meet you!" the woman smiled. She paused for a moment and tilted her head in thought however. "Say, did you suddenly get taller or something? I could have sworn we were at eye level or something."
Fian coughed, it was getting hard to breathe. This might not be such a bad way to finally go. "Cough T-this upper body strength and testosterone, y-yep, definitely a guy."
Time seemed to freeze as the look of happiness on Fredriika's face vanished in an instant as it shifted into pure hatred. "Yamataian girly boy..." she slowly began. "IN THE NAME OF THE IMPERIUM OF NEPLESLIA - " Fredriika began, raising him above her head. " - I BANISH YOU! BACK TO THE YAMATAIAN BOY BAND FROM WHICH YOU CAME!" And with that, she threw him over and into the morass below. Right at that moment however, the banshee of a woman realized something else. "Oh! My show's back on," Fredriika remarked, noticing Ran regaining consciousness.
A light groan came from the Mid-Corporal, followed by him waking up in a rather startling matter, almost panicked. "What the fuck?" He managed to slur out, holding his head to somehow stop his brain from throbbing out of his skull. "Motherfucker, what happened?" At that point, Ran remembered why he had become so angry to the point where he violently backed up into Slip-Ring, threatening to knock Elina's medpack off. "WHAT THE FUCK, MY FUCKING LEGS. FUCK SHIT."
Then Ran Rui looked to his side at Elina, somehow willfully choosing to see her as a concerned angelic waifish figure, legs outstretched and curled slightly under her, tending to his side. He could almost see the glowing aura and sparkles emanating from her, but that might have just been the concussion. "Oh fuck, it's the eternal angelic torment upon my penis and the sunshine from my dreams made manifest. How you doin' baby?"
Ran produced a cigarette from under his tunic from somewhere. Seeing that his lighter was still in his cargo pack and his ankles were fucked, Ran paused for a moment before he started eating the cigarette.
Stepping back from the stockier Marine's retreat, Slip-Ring said nothing at first as It watched him. Right up until he produced a cigarette and began to consume it. While not an organic and not requiring food Itself, It was reasonably sure that was not the proper way one consumed commercially available cigarettes.
"Staff Sergeant, I stand by to restrain the Corporal on your order. Shall we proceed to the medical bay?"
"Fuck that! There aren't any fucking breaks on the Train of Love! Don't you come between true love! I'd shave both of our fucking heads, slather them in oil and write fucking poetry reaching beyond the stars and time elating how good our bald, oil-drenched heads felt meeting each other! ONLY THEN WILL WE FINALLY BE ONE IN LOVE." Ran looked up at Slip. "...Unrelated, what gender do you identify as?"
Somewhere, his galactic soul mate died in the hole he dug for himself.
"Holy shit, I think I actually understand how and why that admiral's daughter fucked you." Elina said, literally uncomprehending of the situation and almost everything come out of Ran's mouth or being acted out by his still-injured body. "You're actually insane, and keeping you at enlisted levels forever is some kind of fucking HR purgatory for whichever poor NCO is going to be stuck leading your squad."
"Just leave him. His ankles should set fine now that they're splinted and he's got medical nanomachines in his bloodstream." She glanced over at Slip and shook her head.
For once, Ran's demeanor toughened and became serious for an incredibly frightening moment, relative to the incomprehensibly numerous moments of dickery preceding. "Admiral's daughter? What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Uh. Hmm. Guess your mental data was only made a bit before that, rough." Elina's own expression turned a bit pitying. "...you do know why you were demoted, right? It's written all up and down the dossier."
Slip stared at the Corporal ". . . gender?" In about the time it took either to blink, Slip-Ring began changing. Rainbow-patterned hair disappearing for shoulder length blonde locks, uniform replaced by a matte-gray suit-coat over a white button-up shirt, black skirt, stockings, and white heels. Blue eyes staring at the Corporal and a "too-big-for-my-shoulders" bust. A dead ringer for the signature Nepleslian news girl.
"I can be a woman for you. Since that seems to be your preference, Corporal." It offered a shrug, "Otherwise, I am me.
"...I've made it a point to be the bane of every officer's fucking existence, so fuck me, right?" There was a very dull feeling of anxiousness - possibly fear - that Ran was feeling. Fucked an Admiral's daughter? Aw fuck. Even then, Ran only offered a seemingly uncaring sneer at the news. "Fuck it, I've died once. What the fuck more are they going to do to me? Keep me dead next time?" Ran started eating another cigarette. "And fuck whoever that Admiral's daughter was. I've got a whore in every space port any fuckin' way. At least maybe this one won't smell like rotten fucking p-"
It was at that point where Ran witnessed the spacer changing from a rather neutral figure to a very full-figured one. "...Holy fuck, I've never been so aroused and unsure of myself before. It's not even fucking time for my mid-day drink."
"You went AWOL and fucked the wrong guy's daughter. I'm not even allowed to know who's kid it was, but he's taken it upon himself to shit on you from up on high. Read your goddamn dossier once in a while, especially if you're being revived or getting knocked out during ops." Elina looked over at at Slip and was equally impressed, although on a far more clinical basis. On a technical basis, whatever architecture its body was based on was undoubtedly quite sophisticated, and she suddenly had an urge to look.
"Hey so, Spacer." Ran comically propped himself up on Slip-Rings shoulders. "You and me want to get some drinks or like fuckin' software later? I wouldn't mind seeing what else you can do with this...." Ran's fingers not-so-subtly traced along Slip-Ring's form, before being interrupted.
"First-off, eww. Slip is like less than ten unless we're talking about an especially old SI that's diverged strongly from Nepleslian neurological norms. You're either fucking a kid or a space station's neural net." Elina lectured, finding her disgust for Ran intensify with every word they exchanged.
"To be fair, Staff Sergeant. At five years of age most members of the Free State are considered to be young adults." It paused, "I am five years old."
Something in It's tone suggested it might not be as pleased by this as Ran. This was in addition to the way it warily eyed him now.
"See? It's all fucking good! Either I'm fucking a hivemind and by extension getting massive amounts of inter-ass that I'll have to be free basing firewalls and anti-malware software, or I'm engaging in mild titillation with a being considered to be an adult by...her...? own species! Besides, age ain't nothing but a subjective, relativistic, and sometimes legally undefinable thing, angel!" And then someone from above collided with him and sent his head flying onto the floor and him back into unconsciousness.
Fian felt his momentum change, good to know that he still had his provocation skillset. "Ahaha yeess! I mean, nooooooooooooo!" He flew over the ledge slowly at 50% gravity, there was more than enough time to catch his breath between elongated 'no's before he knocked his head against something equally hardheaded and passed out, his unconscious form gracefully bouncing off Ran Rui before settling into its own corner of the bay with a dull thud.
Having neither retreated, nor offered help to anyone, Krex was content with how this was playing out. He would hear a snippet of conversation here, and listen to a horny marine's attempts at love there. It was honestly quite funny to him, although maybe not in the general sense of the word. If he was to be with any of these group of misfits planetside, he would either have a really easy job or a very funny hard one. Both seemed alright to him, so he moved back towards the gathering group of misfits. Listening, but not participating much to the various conversations.
Elina gaped briefly and covered her mouth, looking at the two figures drifting across the floor of the bay now. The years and years of being treated like shit for being a former Red volunteer fighter, the shitty come-ons by marines and bullshit posturing by Neko in the scant joint ops she wound up in, the grinding ouroboros of navigating bureaucratic channels trying to get promoted out of an enlisted rank like she fucking should have for serving six years as a doctor and losing more limbs than a Mishhu at a katana convention- none of them seemed to be as intensely shitty as this exact moment: floating in a cargo bay doing bush medicine on morons.
"Fuck," she sort of gurgled, looking them over. She didn't snap, but somehow felt her high hopes for her new life in the colonies sink, "ALRIGHT. EVERYONE WHO CAN HEAR MY VOICE. YOU ARE HEREBY RELIEVED OF YOUR CURRENT NON-ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RECRUITED TO ASSIST ME IN CARRYING THESE TWO MARINES TO SICKBAY NOW, ASAP."
At this point, Slip-Ring had reverted to It's normal appearance, back in It's uniform, with a few strands of bright red hair from Its mohawk hanging in front of It's face as it stared at the two fallen Marines.
"Staff Sergeant, inquiry." It only spared her a brief glance.
"What?" Elina asked in response, stepping over to Fian to begin carrying him back to her impromptu medical station (since he seemed lighter and easier to carry than a burly, fully-grown marine).
"Are they broken? They seem to be broken." It was silent a moment, "Perhaps dead."
"Wahahahahahahaha!" a voice from above cackled. "Scurry my minions! Scurry!" Fredriika called out to the marines below, laughing at them all. "Careful with the one that sparkles! He's really girly!"
"Oh... probably concussions again. The smaller one might be kinda fucked since he looks delicate, so we should drag them to medbay." Elina glanced up, to the Chief's perch and the androgynous little imp that he was talking to before. "And you up there. Rank doesn't mean anything to medicine unless you're the goddamn Sky Marshall himself, so come down here and help carry him to sickbay."
"Whelp shit." Figuring that this assortment of duties was a lot better than staring at a container all day, he moved to help the big sgt up. Mumbling under his breath and he tried to take some of the big man's weight, "C'mon sarge, we have to get you back into some more trouble."
In a motion that seemed as confused as it was dutiful, Slip-Ring headed over to the smaller of the pair sprawled out on the ground. A Master Chief - Vel Steyr. Big name. Small person. Nothing bleeding in the open and his brain-pan didn't look to be compromised. Satisfied with this eyes-only assessment, Slip-Ring crouched down and places one arm between the smaller Marine's legs and took his wrist in the other hand. With a heft, he was across It's shoulders in something roughly resembling a fireman's carry.
"Mmm lets do that again." Fian mumbled in stupor.
Slip-Ring stood once more, the Master Chief cast over It's shoulders, "I will follow you, Staff Sergeant." It paused, "Though I might suggest expediency to the medical bay?"
"Yeah thanks, he's all yours." Elina wasn't too happy to have the Master Chief taken off her hands, since it meant getting her hands on Ran again and possibly dealing with him even more, but dutifully took her medical pack back before heading over to Krex to give him a hand with the bigger of the two. "Let's go."
'Touch me, baby..." Ran mumbled, concussively.
"Like I'm going to lift a finger - I'm not on duty right now!" she called down at Elina. "Besides, he implied I was flat chested," Fredriika muttered, pouting a little over that fact. As dour as that thought was, even from where she stood, she could hear Ran. "Hahahahahaha!" Struggling not to but failing, she exploded again in a torrent of teary eyed laughter. "Thank the Brass, I'm going to love working with you ants!"
"Where's the med bay doc? I have no idea where anything is on this thing." Patting the big man on his head, "This guy might find himself with a bit more bruises if I have to carry his big ass up some of these containers."
"Ughn, whatever." Elina answered Ran and Fredriika at once, before looking back over at Valt with a frown. "Anyway, I'll lead the way. Served on a ship of this class a few years ago so I know my way around the floors. If these fucking incidents keep happening..."
"...and fuck, we didn't even hand out immunizations. I really hope we don't miss any this time." She added, suddenly very concerned.
Before anything more could be said, the ship began to rumble.
"This is the Captain speaking, we're beginning our final approach to the city of Francia, Francia. Please remain calm and seated with both hands and feet inside the ride at all times during our re-entry." Soon enough, a thump reverberated through the ship as it touched down, the Captain's voice drifting through the ship's intercoms again. "We've arrived at Francia, Francia. Please take all your shit with you, and those of us who give a F* hope you've all enjoyed the ride." At that, the giant doors for the cargo bay the marines were crammed into swung open speeding winds and snow bursting into the ship' interior.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Fredriika bellowed over the storm's roar. Grabbing her DataJocky, she yelled into it next, her own voice streaming out of the speakers."THE HELL IS GOING ON? I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE WERE LANDING ON A TROPICAL AREA!"
"Huh? Oh no. The city that's at the equator is where me and my boys are going to go next after this. Francia is where you all get off at. So hurry up and offload everything so we can get to the beaches and tits," the Captain replied. Off in the barely visible little city, bright orange shined as explosions blossomed off in the distance. Fredriika's face paled.
"Oh shit."
"....Tits?" Ran groaned through his impending brain trauma.
"01000110011101010110001101101011" Slip muttered darkly.